Browse > Theme > Family – blessing or curse
62 articles
An American Christmas (short story)
- Short Stories
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Family – blessing or curse, Immigrant experience, Motherhood, Working class struggles
- Available
Short story by Alice Nash centering on an elderly Issei woman in contemporary New York. As she struggles to carry a bag of rice home to her apartment, she reflects on her arrival in New York with her late husband after leaving the concentration camp and the kind Yamaguchi family who put them up while refusing to take money from them. They eventually opened a cleaning shop that helped pay for their only son's college education. A successful businessman in California, the son takes her on a trip every year, but largely keeps her away from her grandchildren due to his white wife's discomfort with her. When she gets back to her apartment, the family of the building's supervisor, the Gonzalez family, invites her to their home to help decorate their Christmas tree.
Beacon Hill Boys (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Grades 7-8
- Young Adult, Historical Fiction
- Coming of age, Convention and rebellion, Family – blessing or curse, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Identity crisis, Power of tradition
- Available
Novel for young adults by Ken Mochizuki about a Sansei teenager's quest for identity and meaning in 1972 Seattle.
Best Friends Forever: A World War II Scrapbook (book)
- Books
- Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
- Grades 3-5, Grades 7-8
- Children's, Historical Fiction
- Everlasting love, Family – blessing or curse, Injustice, Rights - individual or societal
- Widely available
Children's book about the friendship between a German American girl and her forcibly removed Japanese American friend in the form of a scrapbook from the year 1942.
Bend with the Wind: The Life, Family, and Writings of Grace Eto Shibata (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Circle of life, Family – blessing or curse, Female roles, Power of tradition
- Available
Memoir of a Nisei woman—though written in the third person—that covers a nearly one hundred year history of a prominent San Luis Obispo area farming family and that ends with the author's graduation from college at age seventy-four.
Bridge of Scarlet Leaves (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Romance, Historical Fiction
- Communication – verbal and nonverbal, Everlasting love, Family – blessing or curse, Heroism – real and perceived, Love and sacrifice
- Widely available
Novel by Kristina McMorris that centers on an interracial romance between a white woman and a Nisei man during World War II.
Blood Hina (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Adult
- Fiction, Mystery
- Family – blessing or curse, Hazards of passing judgment, Heroism – real and perceived, Love and sacrifice
- Widely available
The fourth book in the Mas Arai Mysteries series by Naomi Hirahara finds the Kibei gardener coming to the aid of his best friend, Haruo Mukai, whose impending wedding is interrupted by accusations of theft and by his sudden disappearance.
Child Prisoner in American Concentration Camps (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Grades 7-8
- Memoir
- Evils of racism, Family – blessing or curse, Immigrant experience, Working class struggles
- Available
Memoir of a childhood spent in American concentration camps by a Nisei educator and activist from Seattle.
Silver Like Dust (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Evils of racism, Family – blessing or curse, Power of the past, Role of women
- Widely available
Memoir published in 2011 centering on the author's grandmother, who slowly tells the author the story of her life and incarceration at Heart Mountain , over the course of several visits with the author. Her grandmother's detailed narrative from the perspective of a young woman of twenty when the war breaks out—the happy childhood in Los Angeles, the shock of war and forced removal, meeting her husband at the Pomona Assembly Center , marrying in camp, and having her first child there, before resettling in Seabrook Farms , New Jersey—is contrasted with the author's vastly different life as a contemporary young woman of roughly the same age when she begins the project. Having grown up in Pennsylvania, apart from her grandmother in Florida, the visits also allow the two women to really get to know each other for the first time. The book includes various brief historical snippets that provide …
Sideways: Memoir of a Misfit (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Coming of age, Convention and rebellion, Family – blessing or curse, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice
- Available
Memoir of a young Nisei woman who was born in the Minidoka , Idaho, concentration camp. The story focuses on her often strained relationships with her parents, grandparents, and eight siblings in 1950s Chicago.
Seki-nin (Duty Bound) (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Convention and rebellion, Displacement, Facing darkness, Family – blessing or curse, Power of tradition
- Available
Novel by George Nakagawa about a Nisei stranded in Japan during World War II.
Suitcase Sefton and the American Dream (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Everlasting love, Family – blessing or curse, Importance of community, Injustice
- Widely available
Novel by Jay Feldman about a New York Yankees scout who discovers a hot Nisei pitching prospect in an American concentration camp during World War II.
Come See the Paradise (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Drama, History, Romance
- Everlasting love, Family – blessing or curse, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice
- Widely available
The content in this article is still under development. A completed version will appear soon!
This Time Will Be Different (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Grades 7-8
- Young Adult, History
- Capitalism – effect on the individual, Coming of age, Family – blessing or curse, Power of the past
- Widely available
Acclaimed coming of age novel by Misa Sugiura that explores the continuing impact and relevance of Japanese American incarceration.
The Brothers Murata (short story)
- Short Stories
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Fiction
- Family – blessing or curse, Nationalism – complications, Rights - individual or societal, Role of men
- Available
Novella by Toshio Mori about two brothers in Topaz who clash over the issue of military service. Likely written in Topaz, it was first published in the 2000 Mori anthology Unfinished Message: Selected Works of Toshio Mori .
In Search of Hiroshi (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Family – blessing or curse, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice, Power of the past
- Available
Memoir by Nisei journalist Gene Oishi published by Charles E. Tuttle in 1988.
The Legend of Fire Horse Woman (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Female roles, Family – blessing or curse, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice
- Widely available
Novel by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston published in 2003 that is set in large part in Manzanar .
Letters to Memory (book)
- Books
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir
- Circle of life, Family – blessing or curse, Optimism – power or folly, Power of the past, Quest for discovery
- Widely available
Incarceration-centered history of one Japanese American family told through short vignettes inspired by letters, photographs, and other objects in the family archive, as written by acclaimed novelist Karen Tei Yamashita.
Little Women (A Multicultural Transposition) (play)
- Plays
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Coming of age, Desire to escape, Family – blessing or curse, Female roles, Overcoming – fear, weakness, vice
- No availability
Play by Velina Hasu Houston that reimagines Louisa May Alcott's 19th century novel Little Women , setting it in early postwar Los Angeles with four Japanese American sisters at its center.
The Little Exile (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Grades 7-8
- Memoir
- Evils of racism, Family – blessing or curse, Female roles, Immigrant experience
- Available
Memoir by Jeanette A. Arakawa covering her wartime incarceration at the Stockton Assembly Center and Rohwer , Arkansas, concentration camp and postwar resettlement in Denver. Though written in the first person, her name and those of others in the book have been changed.
Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese-American Internment Camps (book)
- Books
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Grades 7-8, Grades 9-12, Adult
- Memoir, Children's
- Evils of racism, Facing darkness, Family – blessing or curse, Injustice, Loss of innocence, Power of the past
- Widely available
Incarceration memoir of life at Pinedale Assembly Center , Tule Lake , and Minidoka , by Mary Matsuda Gruenewald, a seventeen-year-old Nisei at the time of her and her family's forced removal from their Washington state farm. First published in 2005 by NewSage Press, it was followed by a young reader's edition in 2010.
Memories of Pop (short story)
- Short Stories
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Historical Fiction
- Family – blessing or curse, Forgiveness
- No availability
Short story by Jiro Saito about a young college dropout Sansei returning home to San Diego for the funeral of his estranged father. Written in the first person voice of Mas Mayeda, it is set in around 1960. As the story begins, Mas gets a call from his sister Rose informing him of their father's death. Disowned by his father after dropping out of UC Berkeley's engineering program to become a writer, Mas had not seen the family in three years. Upon his return, Rose tells him that their father, though stubborn, indicated that he wanted Mas to return. Before the funeral, Mas sees old family photos that tell their story: his parents' wedding in 1927 (his Issei father married a Nisei woman from San Diego); a successful farm; his father becoming a community leader; his father's subsequent arrest after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the family's removal and …
Mitsugi's Christmas (short story)
- Short Stories
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Fiction
- Family – blessing or curse, Forgiveness, Love and sacrifice, Optimism – power or folly
- No availability
Short story by Jennifer "Emiko" Kuida about Mitsugi Yamamoto, an elderly widower at the Keiro Retirement Home in Los Angeles who waits to hear from his busy lawyer daughter and his grandchildren on Christmas Day. Julia, a younger Yonsei volunteer nurse, keeps him company sometimes and listens to his stories of the past, particularly his time at Seabrook Farms, New Jersey , where he and his wife Sumi moved after leaving Manzanar .
No No Girl (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Drama
- Family – blessing or curse, Power of the past, Quest for discovery
- Available
Full-length feature film by Paul Daisuke Goodman about the long shadow of the World War II incarceration on a Southern California Nikkei family.
No-No Boy (play)
- Plays
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Convention and rebellion, Family – blessing or curse, Heroism – real and perceived, Individual versus society, Role of men
- No availability
2010 play by Ken Narasaki based on John Okada's classic 1957 novel . While the play largely followed the plot of the novel, the decision to change the ending to a "happy" one proved controversial.
One-Two-One-Seven (film)
- Films and Video
- Grades 9-12, Adult
- Documentary
- Family – blessing or curse, Growing up – pain or pleasure, Power of the past
- Widely available
Documentary film by Brett Kodama about the experiences of his grandmother, Sharon Shizuko Okazaki Kodama, at Manzanar . Just three years old when she and her family were forcibly removed from their Southern California home and sent to Manzanar, Okazaki Kodama's Issei father killed her Kibei mother in September 1942. She and her older sister spent the rest of the war at the Manzanar Children's Village , the camp orphanage. They were raised after the war by an aunt and uncle in Washington state. Okazaki Kodama recalls her memories of the camp and the orphanage, talks about her parents' deaths and reflects on the impact on the incarceration over visuals that include archival photographs and footage, photographs from her own family album, and images of the Manzanar National Historic Site today. The title refers to the Okazaki's family number at Manzanar.